Spring 2017

In celebration of this agreement
between the conservation
organizations and the developers,
the GM at Big Sky Resort, Taylor
Middleton, made an announcement
at a national travel company
convention (quoted in a Bozeman
Daily Chronicle in 2000). Middleton
stated:
“Never in the history, past,
present, or future, will Big
Sky ever discharge treated
effluent into the Gallatin
River.”
Taylor Middleton is still, 17 years
later, Big Sky’s Resort GM. In fact,
he was awarded the Chet Huntley
Lifetime Achievement Award
in 2015 for honesty and being a
positive role model. Good old Mr.
Huntley made a similar statement,
which preceded Mr. Middleton’s,
when he first envisioned Big Sky as
he promised, “we will never pollute
the Gallatin.”
What happened?
“About 10 years ago, developers,
the mining industry, and well
anyone who wanted to accomplish
something negatively impactful
on an important resource, that
environmental orgs wouldn’t
approve, said ‘if we can’t beat them,
let’s buy them’” (local angler: K.R.).
My first assumption after reading
that Big Sky’s Sewer District GM,
Ron Edwards, wanted to build a
pipeline and discharge directly
into the river was that the Gallatin
River Task Force had been recently
corrupted by the sewer district’s
manager, as by then I’d learned he
was on their organizations’ board of
directors.
It turns out Mr. Edwards has held a
seat on that board for over 10 years.
Concerned, I reached out to Kristen
Gardner, the director of GRTF (in
early April 2016) for clarification on
where the organization’s board of
directors stood on this key issue.
I wrote to Kristin requesting a
formal statement from her as
Executive Director, “where do you
stand on the recently proposed
pipeline discharging millions of
gallons of effluent directly into
the Gallatin River on an annual
basis?” Along with, if Ron Edwards
as a longstanding board member of
GRTF speaks for the organization’s
stance?
MONTANA FLYFISHING